The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai Poster

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura, "Under a Wave off Kanagawa"), also known as the The Great Wave or simply The Wave, is a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai. An example of ukiyo-e art, it was published sometime between 1830 and 1833 (during the Edo Period) as the first in Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei (富嶽三十六景), and is his most famous work. It depicts an enormous wave threatening boats near the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa. While sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is more likely to be a large okinami or normal ocean wave. As in all the prints in the series, it depicts the area around Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background.